Sunday, August 13, 2017

Fire and Fury?

A commentary by Steve Halpern

This
past week I’ve read comments by President Donald Trump that have been on the
front pages of newspapers all across the nation. First, Trump threatened North
Korea with, “Fire and fury.” Trump followed up this statement with the words:
“Maybe that statement wasn’t tough enough.” He clarified these words stating
that, “North Korea better get their act together, or they are going to be in
trouble like few nations have ever been in trouble.” For Trump, these
statements weren’t enough. Speaking from his private golf club, while he is
reportedly, “working on his vacation,” a banner headline from the Philadelphia
Inquirer read, “Trump: U.S. military ‘locked and loaded.’”

To
the best of my knowledge President Trump hasn’t specifically threatened North
Korea with nuclear warfare. However, the above statements clearly imply, that
is exactly what he is doing.

Listening
to these statements many have concluded that Trump is different from other
presidents. However, when we look at the history of this country, we might
argue that while Trump might be more blunt than other Presidents, the content
of his words have been a matter of routine policy in this country for decades.
This is the history the pro-capitalist press rarely, if ever, reports on. So,
this blog is an outline of the history of mass murder, as well as the
resistance to U.S. policy, since the Second World War.

Japan

Most
people know about the fact that the United States dropped nuclear weapons on
the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What most people don’t know is
that the United States carried out a fire bombing campaign against Japan for
six months before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The
late E. Bartlett Kerr wrote a book documenting this history in his Flames over Tokyo – The U.S. Army Air
Forces’ Incendiary Campaign Against Japan 1944 – 1945. Kerr reported that
the U.S. military invented specialized phosphorous (fire) bombs to be used
specifically against civilian areas of Japan. The military decided to use these
bombs because most Japanese housing was made of wood that would easily burn. Experiments
were carried out to ensure that these bombs were effective. Close attention was
paid to the direction of the wind to ensure that there would be maximum
destruction.

At
the end of Kerr’s book he gave a list of sixty-seven Japanese cities that were
firebombed. The largest city in Japan is Tokyo. Kerr claimed that 50.8% of that
city was destroyed with these phosphorous bombs. Kerr also listed cities in the
United States that had similar population as the 67 Japanese cities that
experienced firebombing. New York City had a similar population as Tokyo at
that time.

We
might recall the horror of the three thousand deaths at the World Trade Center
on September 11, 2001. It is unimaginable to think about what it would have
meant if half of the city of New York was burned to the ground. However, that
is exactly what happened to Tokyo before the end of the Second World War.

E.
Bartlett Kerr makes the seemingly insane argument that these bombings were
necessary in order to force Japan to surrender. In fact, the United States went
to war against Japan because both nations wanted to dominate Asia. The U.S.
government was in a hurry to end the war because they knew that the Soviet
Union was mobilizing their armed forces to go to war against Japan.

At
that time, Japan was effectively defeated and posed no threat to the United
States. As we will see, the U.S. wanted to be in a strong position to reverse
the revolutions that were erupting in China, Korea, and Vietnam.

China

After
the war, the Chinese Revolution erupted. China had been dominated by foreign
powers since the Opium Wars of the nineteenth century. As a result, tens of
millions of Chinese died of starvation.

This
problem of massive starvation was new to China. The Chinese built their Grand Canal that stretched for about
1,500 miles. So, in the past when one section of China experienced food
shortages, relief supplies were shipped on the Grand Canal.

The
foreign powers, dominated by Britain, had no interest in maintaining this
canal. These powers were only interested in the profits they could amass from
China. So, when there were food shortages tens of millions of people starved to
death.

After
the Second World War, China had a tremendous debt mostly due to their purchase
of armaments. We might keep in mind that the Chinese government of those days
was not only at war with the occupying Japanese army, but also with the Chinese
forces under the command of Mao Zedong.

In
order to attempt to pay this massive debt, the pro-capitalist Chinese
government put in place a system of massive inflation. This policy literally
destroyed the Chinese capitalist economy. So, the forces commanded by Mao
Zedong took political control of the nation in a relatively bloodless
revolution.

The
political officials in the United States were enraged by the Chinese
Revolution. They actually argued that they, “lost China.” So at the end of the
Second World War, the U.S. government attempted to keep the armed forces
mobilized in the Pacific. The reason for this continued mobilization was to
attempt to bring down the new Chinese revolutionary government.

The
problem was that the soldiers stationed in the Pacific wanted to go home. They
experienced the horrors of war, and didn’t see any reason to continue fighting
a war against China. So members of the U.S. military organized a movement to
bring the GIs home. This movement forced the U.S. government to temporarily
abandon their plans to place a puppet regime in China.

Korea

Just
as in Vietnam and China, there was an insurrectionary movement in Korea to free
itself from Japanese occupation. After the war, those who fought against the
Japanese took control over the entire nation. However, just a few days after
Japan’s surrender, the U.S. armed forced invaded Korea and divided the nation
into the northern and southern sections.

The
U.S. government placed Syngman Rhee in charge of South Korea. Rhee lived in the
United States for decades and had university degrees from George Washington,
Harvard, and Princeton. He was also one of the few Korean supporters of the U.S.
who was fluent in English.

While
the press in this country has been highly critical of the repressive policies
of North Korea, we read very little about the long history of repression in
South Korea. These repressive policies began with Syngman Rhee. Rhee wanted to
take control of the entire Korean peninsula and deliberately provoked the North
to invade the South.

Because
of his repressive policies, few in the South defended Rhee and the Northern
Korea forces took control of the South in a short period of time. The only
reason why there is a nation of South Korea today was because of a massive U.S.
invasion.

General
Douglas MacArthur felt that the U.S. armed forces would overwhelm the Koreans.
He also believed that these armed forces could proceed to invade China and take
control of that nation.

Well,
the Koreans and Chinese allowed the U.S. forces to move north all the way to
the Chinese border on the Yalu River. Then, the Chinese and Koreans
counterattacked and trapped an entire battalion of U.S. soldiers.

As a
part of the U.S. war against Korea General Curtis LeMay claimed that U.S.
bombers destroyed about 20% of North Korea. The Air Force dropped about 32,000
tons of napalm bombs. These bombs literally burned Koreans. The Air Force also
dropped 630,000 tons of explosive bombs on the country. Many of these bombs were
dropped on the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. The residents of this city
didn’t leave their homes for days because many of these bombs were time-delayed
and the residents had no idea when they would explode.

It
was General Curtis LeMay who was the Air Force Commander during the wars
against Japan, Korea, as well as Vietnam. In Vietnam, LeMay argued that, “We
should bomb Vietnam back into the stone age.” In the war against Korea and Vietnam,
literally millions of people were killed by the U.S. forces. In other words,
U.S. politicians gave the Air Force permission to carry out LeMay’s horrendous
vision.

However,
Vietnamese resistance, as well as the anti-war movement that erupted around the
world, forced the United States to leave Vietnam. That anti-war sentiment
continues to this day.

Conclusion

This
blog gives just some of the facts that demonstrate how the current statements
threatening war against Korea by President Trump are nothing new. In fact, most
of the U.S. wars of the twentieth century took place when there was a
Democratic Party President.

Today,
South Korea is the only nation that I know of that changed from being
underdeveloped to a highly developed nation. We should also keep in mind that,
as in all capitalist nations, there is large-scale poverty in South Korea.
People around the world know of the corporations Samsung, LG, and Hyundai. I
believe that we can say that South Korea isn’t just a developed nation, but it
has taken on imperialist characteristics. All of this happened because of
massive capitalist investment in the nation.

We
might keep in mind that the cause of the First and Second World Wars was the
competition of the world powers for which one would dominate the world.
Clearly, the United States capitalists have an interest in restricting South Korean
global interests.

Clearly
the Korean people don’t want another U.S. war against their country. Clearly,
China doesn’t want that war either.

Yet,
today there are about 80,000 U.S. soldiers stationed on Korean soil. While U.S.
politicians portray the North Korean government as crazy, history tells another
story. We don’t need to embrace the government of Kim Jon-un to understand that
the United States has been the aggressor in Asia for quite a long time.

President
Donald Trump isn’t a worker. He has no idea what it means to work for a boss in
order to support his family. All wealth comes from working people who provide
all the goods and services we all need and want. Donald Trump has no idea of
what it means to be a garment worker, or a farm worker, or what it means to
work in a factory or a meat processing plant. He was born into wealth, and probably
didn’t need to work a day in his life.

Understanding
this I believe that Donald Trumps threats to Korea underscore the idea that he
has no idea what the word courage means.
No, in my opinion Trump and his democratic and republican co-thinkers are
motivated by another emotion: fear.

Trump
ran for President because he sees the instability in the world. He clearly
doesn’t like to think about the fact that this instability can lead to the loss
of all the obscene amounts of wealth he owns. Trump believes in the impossible
dream that his policies of, “America First,” will create some kind of stability
in the world. He is learning that this idea has no more chance of success, than
an elephant attempting to dance and the head of a pin.

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I
believe that there are enough nuclear weapons in the world to destroy this
planet five times over. We who live here have literally every reason to oppose
all U.S. moves towards war.

About Me

I am the author of the novel "Looking Back From 2101." My novel imagines a future world where poverty and discrimination are no longer a part of the human condition. My blog contains articles and poems that I've written over the years. Many of my poems are biographies of historical figures who I have found to be inspiring.